Universal Basic income has direct impacts of several principles of Catholic Social Teaching and its potential to impact the social good. Intimate involvement with core values associated with the social good and individual responsibilities are prerequisite to understanding the impetus behind establishing a UBI. While further analysis is needed before it can be equated with increasing the common good of mankind, it does have several aspects that are aimed at improving the well-being of all, especially pertaining to the less fortunate and vulnerable individuals as seen through three specific Catholic Principles.
Call to Family, Community and Participation
This Catholic Social Teaching principle argues that a person is not just sacred, but also a social being that needs to emphasize other individuals’ ability to grow through their own involvement. A UBI holds the potential to uniformly provide the opportunity to establish a future to all citizens, thereby allowing the poor to participate in society and have active control over their future. “Christians are not expected to distribute to others what is required for their own needs and those of their families, but they are bound by duty to give to the needy what remains over,” (Novello 2016, p.25). Every Christian is required to participate alongside their community in a subservient fashion allowing all members of their community to benefit after their initial needs are satisfied. A UBI helps redistribute wealth across all individuals in a society, which helps satisfy the call for community. Rights and Responsibilities Everyone has rights to each other and to human decency. A UBI creates the initial income needed to give the unemployed, or those increasingly displaced by robotic technology, sufficient funding to live. Bretherton (2016) in Democracy, society and truth: An exploration of catholic social teaching, said it best to reflect the need for political initiative to guide the common welfare in stating: In a consociational account of sovereignty, to be a political animal is not to be a citizen of a unitary, hierarchically determined political society. Nor is it to participate in a polity in which all authority is derived from a transcendent, monistic point of sovereignty. Rather, it is to be a participant in a plurality of interdependent, self-organized associations that together constitute a consociational polity. The singularity and specificity of each is constitutive of the common good of all. (p. 274) Granting a basic income can help the common good and therefore requires political support as it helps satisfy the right every person has to each other as well as to human decency by promoting the common good. Preferential Option for and with People who are Poor …show more content…
To help overcome much of the adversity facing a UBI, there have been hybrid proposals, such as a partial basic income, which limits the supplied income to simply those under the federal poverty line, thereby still helping the poor and vulnerable, but limiting the capital cost of the program as well as its inflationary impacts. Varieties of partial models exist, and are considered legitimate first steps to gain deeper insight to the effectiveness of a full scale UBI (Sherman, 1996). The cornerstone to this argument is the resounding sense of justice associated with targeting the neediest individuals and providing the resources to thrive and pursue higher level work opportunities. In fact, any form of a basic income would allow for an expansive capacity to continue education or trainings during a reduced time of professional activity (Sherman, 1996). This would provide financial freedom to pursue engaging employment options regardless of otherwise limiting socio-economic statuses, thereby creating a truer form of freedom, where dues, and consequently justice, can be distributed based on hard work rather than predispositions (Van Parijs, 2013). Even skeptics admit that a partial basic income would likely need to be the first step at better understanding the full impacts of a UBI while mitigating negative effects (Jordan, …show more content…
Moving forward with a more robust testing of a UBI, as well as further analysis of the hybrid models will help understand the “particular relationships and activities [that] may be necessary to realize the justice that basic income is designed to bring about,” and overcome the great challenge of gaining political solidarity (Jordan 2011, p. 110). The benefits, ethical prowess, and initial research are strong enough to argue for the application of a partial basic income beta test
Call to Family, Community and Participation
This Catholic Social Teaching principle argues that a person is not just sacred, but also a social being that needs to emphasize other individuals’ ability to grow through their own involvement. A UBI holds the potential to uniformly provide the opportunity to establish a future to all citizens, thereby allowing the poor to participate in society and have active control over their future. “Christians are not expected to distribute to others what is required for their own needs and those of their families, but they are bound by duty to give to the needy what remains over,” (Novello 2016, p.25). Every Christian is required to participate alongside their community in a subservient fashion allowing all members of their community to benefit after their initial needs are satisfied. A UBI helps redistribute wealth across all individuals in a society, which helps satisfy the call for community. Rights and Responsibilities Everyone has rights to each other and to human decency. A UBI creates the initial income needed to give the unemployed, or those increasingly displaced by robotic technology, sufficient funding to live. Bretherton (2016) in Democracy, society and truth: An exploration of catholic social teaching, said it best to reflect the need for political initiative to guide the common welfare in stating: In a consociational account of sovereignty, to be a political animal is not to be a citizen of a unitary, hierarchically determined political society. Nor is it to participate in a polity in which all authority is derived from a transcendent, monistic point of sovereignty. Rather, it is to be a participant in a plurality of interdependent, self-organized associations that together constitute a consociational polity. The singularity and specificity of each is constitutive of the common good of all. (p. 274) Granting a basic income can help the common good and therefore requires political support as it helps satisfy the right every person has to each other as well as to human decency by promoting the common good. Preferential Option for and with People who are Poor …show more content…
To help overcome much of the adversity facing a UBI, there have been hybrid proposals, such as a partial basic income, which limits the supplied income to simply those under the federal poverty line, thereby still helping the poor and vulnerable, but limiting the capital cost of the program as well as its inflationary impacts. Varieties of partial models exist, and are considered legitimate first steps to gain deeper insight to the effectiveness of a full scale UBI (Sherman, 1996). The cornerstone to this argument is the resounding sense of justice associated with targeting the neediest individuals and providing the resources to thrive and pursue higher level work opportunities. In fact, any form of a basic income would allow for an expansive capacity to continue education or trainings during a reduced time of professional activity (Sherman, 1996). This would provide financial freedom to pursue engaging employment options regardless of otherwise limiting socio-economic statuses, thereby creating a truer form of freedom, where dues, and consequently justice, can be distributed based on hard work rather than predispositions (Van Parijs, 2013). Even skeptics admit that a partial basic income would likely need to be the first step at better understanding the full impacts of a UBI while mitigating negative effects (Jordan, …show more content…
Moving forward with a more robust testing of a UBI, as well as further analysis of the hybrid models will help understand the “particular relationships and activities [that] may be necessary to realize the justice that basic income is designed to bring about,” and overcome the great challenge of gaining political solidarity (Jordan 2011, p. 110). The benefits, ethical prowess, and initial research are strong enough to argue for the application of a partial basic income beta test